So, with a 25 point buy-in, I have developed stats for a Halfling Summoner as follows:
Str: 12
Dex: 15
Con: 14
Int: 14
Wis: 12
Chr: 16
As you can see, I dislike less than 10 to my attributes. This guy is obviously not melee but will have the agility to Dodge trouble should it make it back to him.
We will be a party of 5 and this is the first character made up so I have no idea what the others players will make.
I was thinking the Reactionary Trait and Birthmark (I hate being controlled). But I have little idea for the Feats for my Halfling and no idea whatsoever for my Eidolon in terms of Feats, Skill, and Evolutions. I would like him to be a Cujo-esqe killing machine with a heart of gold.
Any advice?
First off, are you set on making a standard Summoner? Halflings make superb Master Summoners as well.
Secondly, are you set on being a Halfling? Halflings are in a tie with humans in my opinion as the 2nd best choice to be a Summoner, but both are significantly behind Half-Elves.
The Summoner and the Master Summoner are my favorite class, and I'd be happy to help, just need to get a better sense of what you're looking for.
As far as Attributes go, this is how I'd work a Halfling 25 point buy Summoner:
STR - 10 (-2)
DEX - 16 (+2)
CON - 12
INT - 13 (+1 at 20th)
WIS - 10
CHA - 16 (+2, +1 at 4th, 8th, 12th and 16th)
Strength really does absolutely nothing for you as a halfling summoner - if you had a 12 or a 6 you shouldn't be able to tell the difference in game play 99% of the time.
Half Elf alternate favored class bonus is +1/4 evolution point. This makes them a good deal better than the other races. It is basically the Extra Evolution feat for free every four levels.
Halfling, Gnome, and Human are all just below on the 'great races for summoners' ranking.
For a Standard Summoner, I would probably go with:
8 Str (base for Halfling)
16 Dex (5 Points)
14 Con (5 Points)
12 Int (2 Points)
10 Wis (0 Points)
19 Cha (13 Points)
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25 Points
If you are playing a Master summoner, I would use the same stats.
If you are playing a Synthesist summoner, I would go with:
8 Str (0 Points)
12 Dex (0 Points)
12 Con (2 Points)
14 Int (5 Points)
13 Wis (3 points)
20 Cha (17 Points)
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25 Points
For summoner, the main thing you want to watch out for, in my humble opinion, is: Don't overlap with your Eidolon.
So if your Eidolon is going to specialize in a skill (like perception) you can avoid it yourself. You have a wonderful link with your Eidolon, and it will just be better at a great many skills than you.
As a small summoner, it is worth considering Mount as an evolution early on. Remember though, if you don't put a saddle on the Eidolon, you take a -5 to your ride skill.
Summoners can go with battlefield control and party support often enough. A fun possibility is to build for melee combat actually (believe it or not, they can handle it, if done correctly), with teamwork feats such as outflank to complement the eidolon in combat.
Eidolons on the other hand can be... well, a lot of things. Combat machines, skill monkeys, pouncers of death, and grappling beasts. Lots of possibilities.
For a Cujo-esque killing machine, pounce build sounds like what you'd be going for. Generally, Quadruped-base form, pounce (obviously), and load it up on as many natural attacks (primary ones, preferably. Claws are good for that) as it is allowed. Later on, you can give it flight to help it avoid allies and difficult terrain when it needs to charge, and you can make it large or huge to up its damage output. Power attack can be good, maybe weapon focus if you have a lot of the same types of attacks.
A summoner focused on battlefield control, with wall and pit spells, along with party support, such as haste and heroism could probably complement a pounce eidolon pretty well (make sure your allies can get where they want to go, but the enemies can't get where they want to go).
But of course, like I said, there's tons of possibilities for both the summoner and the eidolon.
Contrary to what Damocles and Arizhel are suggesting though, I'm actually not a fan of pumping Cha that much on a summoner. Enough to cast up to your 6th level spells, and you very well may be good. Buff spells never need a saving throw, obviously, and a lot of the battlefield control spells, such as walls, won't need saves. I personally don't find the summoner spell list appealing enough to focus on debilitating enemies directly, and 6th level spell progression means you won't have more than a 16 base save DC before your Cha mod is factored in (excluding feats to increase it, I suppose). I personally prefer to just avoid spells that are that reliant on Save DCs. Of course, to each their own. Edit: And this would be for a Vanilla summoner. Master summoner would have a better use of Charisma, certainly.
Also, this is a nice guide in regards to summoners, in my opinion.
If I may ask, how much experience as a player do you have?
If this is one of your first few characters, be aware that summoner is a very complicated class. It's rewarding and fun, but it also involves building to characters (and eidolons are EXTREMELY easy to accidentally overpower due to misused rules). You also have to have a pretty good grasp on the various uses for summoned monsters to use the Summoner's Spell Like Abilities, and those are an entirely different set of rules and 'best use' knowledge.
The awesome thing about the Summoner is build flexibility- you have two characters, and you can fit them into whatever party role needs filling. (Not at the same time though, unless you are a sheer expert at the class. It's pretty much 'pick two roles and stay in them.' Though the Eidolon can be rebuilt if a party member dies and a new character joins the group.)
But with that flexibility comes a warning: the biggest problem I've read about on these forums regarding Summoners, aside from the complicated rules involved with the class, is the potential to outshine another party member. Sure, you can build your Eidolon into a front line death machine... but what if it does a better job than the party fighter? You could make it an awesome skill monkey, but what will the party Rogue do?
Having selected the Summoner, I'd wait to actually build the character until you find out what classes everyone else is playing, and the directions they're going in. I've seen archer Fighters, front line warrior Oracles, social skill Rogues who are useless at trapfinding, and a lot of different Wizard focuses. Just because you know someone's class doesn't mean you know the party role they're looking to fill.
As to your Summoner itself, your ability placement seems to imply a caster (or archer?) role rather than a front line warrior role. Just in case you haven't, read Treantmonk's 'God' Wizard Guide. It does an excellent job at explaining the mentality behind buffing, debuffing, and battlefield control. All of which the Summoner is good at. (If you wanted to deal damage from spells, I'd recommend a Wizard/Sorcerer instead.)
I've played clerics, barbarians, and fighters only.....very simple classes. The Summoner does seem extremely complex.
Perhaps it's best I wait until the rest of the party line-up is made. Then I will have a better idea of where to go with this.
I shall read the Guide to Summoner and I will lower my strength. With only light armor and next to no (hopefully) chance of melee it will be rather useless above 10.
Cheers.
I've played clerics, barbarians, and fighters only.....very simple classes. The Summoner does seem extremely complex.
Perhaps it's best I wait until the rest of the party line-up is made. Then I will have a better idea of where to go with this.
I shall read the Guide to Summoner and I will lower my strength. With only light armor and next to no (hopefully) chance of melee it will be rather useless above 10.
Cheers.
Drop me a line in mail if you want to discuss any particular aspects of the character, how its played or how an eidolon is built.
Also, this is a nice guide in regards to summoners, in my opinion.
Woah! That guide (and the side-quest into Malevoker) took forever to read, but it's awesome!
^ That was actually the first (and only, I think) guide I read before making my very first summoner. It helped quite a bit :P
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Ok i dont suggest u play this but i do love showing it off being my summoner that i played from level 2-18. Admittedly it was carried to level 4 when it came to combat and i got seriously lucky on rolls is y it survived but my word was it fun role playing this character. Btw the feats for level 15 and 17 were 3.5 so i took them off the build for u could chose what ever u want.
A word of warning this build is serious cheese so if ur lactose intolerant please avoid lol. But in all seriousness this is an example of how it is easy to make a Summoner op and outshine the party.
-Race / Class-
Half - Elf / Summoner (Synthesist), Paladin 2, Monk 1
-Stats with out Eidolon (25 point buy)-
STR 07 (+6 item)(-6 age) = 07
DEX 07 (+6 item)(-6 age) = 07
CON 10 (-6 age) = 04
INT 13 (+3 age) = 16
WIS 17 (+6 item)(+3 age) = 26
CHA 18 (+2 racial)(+3 age)(+5 leveling)(+6 item) = 34
-Saves with out Eidolon-
Fort = 28
Reflex = 25
Will = 40
AC = 36
Touch = 23
Flat - Foot = 28
-Stats with Eidolon-
STR 29
DEX 28
CON 13
INT 16
WIS 26
CHA 34
-Saves with Eidolon-
Fort = 32
Reflex = 37
Will = 44
AC = 72 (76 with combat expertise)
Touch = 31
Flat - Foot = 58
-Eidolon Abilities-
Base - Darkvision, Evasion, Improved Evasion, Devotion, Multiattack
Form - Biped - claws, limbs (arms), limbs (legs)
Claws (x2)
limbs (arms) (x2)
Immunity (acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic)
Spell Resistance (28)
Flight Su (30ft)
Improved Natural Armor (8)
Improved Damage (claws)
-Class / Feat Progression-
M 01 Dodge, Skill Focus Perception, Toughness
P O2
P 03 Combat Expertise
S 04
S 05 Extra Evolution
S 06
S 07 Combat Reflexes
S 08
S 09 Extra Evolution
S 10
S 11 Vigilant Eidolon
S 12
S 13 Extra Evolution
S 14
S 15 (insert feat here)
S 16
S 17 (insert feat here)
S 18
S 19 Extra Evolution
S 20
-Gear-
Bracers of Armor
Ring of Protection
Ring of Forcefangs
Cloak of Resistance
Amulet of Natural Armor
Headband of Mental Prowess (wis and cha)
Belt of Physical Might (str and dex)
High saves, immunities to all spell damage but positive / negative and force, and spell resistance.
-Eidolon Abilities-
Base - Darkvision, Evasion, Improved Evasion, Devotion, Multiattack
Form - Biped - claws, limbs (arms), limbs (legs)
Claws (x2)
limbs (arms) (x2)
Immunity (acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic)
Spell Resistance (28)
Flight Su (30ft)
Improved Natural Armor (8)
Improved Damage (claws)
Just FYI, you can only get Improved Natural Armor a maximum of 5 times (once at 1st, and an additional time at 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th). Still, the point remains that yes, you can do some truly ludicrous things with a synthesist (or any summoner's eidolon really)
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Just FYI, you can only get Improved Natural Armor a maximum of 5 times (once at 1st, and an additional time at 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th). Still, the point remains that yes, you can do some truly ludicrous things with a synthesist (or any summoner's eidolon really)
-Eidolon Abilities-
Base - Darkvision, Evasion, Improved Evasion, Devotion, Multiattack
Form - Biped - claws, limbs (arms), limbs (legs)
Claws (x2)
limbs (arms) (x2)
Immunity (acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic)
Spell Resistance (28)
Flight Su (30ft)
Improved Natural Armor (8)
Improved Damage (claws)
Sorry meant to have that as the bonus not the number of i got. The bonus is 8 meaning i only picked it 4 times i would of placed 10 if i picked it up 5 times since u get 2 points per upgrade. I did the same thing with the Spell Resistance were i put the total im getting out of it instead the number of times i got it. Btw Spell Resistance i picked up 1ce since it only allows u to obtain it once.